Come to Pass
by Unmasked Potential
Summary: Inspired from summer 2014, we embark on a journey of friendship, light overpowering darkness, and finding a life worth living despite the challenges in the way. This is a story of triumph and acceptance after permanent blindness affects our favorite Loki. Thanos now plays a vital role in Loki's pursuit of rehabilitation. Will the Avengers be ready for a war against the Mad Titan?
1. Chapter 1: The Arrival

Come to Pass

Chapter 1: The Arrival

It was early dawn when the fading moonlight traded places with the bright sunlight as the rays stroked the rainbow bridge in a frenzy of dazzling colors. The wind blew through the trees, the gold of the Asgardian city sparkling with hope and promise. Citizens began to rouse from their beds, preparing themselves for the day ahead.

But today was like no other day.

Darkness was brewing just on the horizon. A lingering shadow at the corners of the Asgardian's vision clouded the rest of their frame of reference. Something was coming for them and they were not ready for it. Something was hunting them and the creatures' spindly arms and claws broke trees in half as they rustled on the outskirts of the forests. Heavy footsteps shook fear into Asgardian blood as the creatures began their descent. They clambered off of their spaceship in droves and began to infiltrate the compound.

Screams erupted into the quiet air as the alarm rang out and the guards scrambled to their feet, weapons at hand. They were just beginning to face the onslaught of the creatures, the alien species lacking visible eyes with grey reptilian skin and razor sharp teeth, when there were suddenly hundreds compared to the mere handful moments before. Horses neighed in alarm and guards began to be pulled apart by the torso in one quick swipe from the creatures' claws.

Families took cover within their small homes but no one was safe. No one was off limits. The creatures cackled with glee as more fell from the sky, jumping off the spaceship from hundreds of feet above and spraying red blood of their victims into the blue sky.

Chaos erupted one after another as the guards only just managed to injure a few of the creatures.

But overall, Asgard was no match.

And if the large purple figure lying within the shadows of his spaceship, smiling and admiring his work was anything to go by: this would mean the fall of the kingdom.

{*!*!*}

Back in the dungeons, Loki feigned indifference as to why there were guards leaving the quarters in a hurry. He tried not to cast his green eyes to the commotion but to say his year in exile within a prison cell was anything more than boring would be a lie he knew not how he would believe.

So, despite himself, he found his eyes trailing over the guards frenzy as they came in droves in and out of the doors. They held their weapons up high, in poor form by the way, shouting orders at each other while a few of the prisoners nearest to the doors screamed and cried.

"A war! A war!"

Someone pleaded with mercy in their veins for the Allfather to protect them and another tried to negotiate their way out of their cell.

"We are doomed!" A woman, a thief earlier in her life, yelled, sinking to her knees in shock.

At this point, Loki couldn't help but find he was intrigued.

"We are to be killed by the hundreds in here!" A man slammed his fist against the golden interlocking shield on the cell's windows.

Another piped up, mercilessly, "You are no match for Him! He will have His way, the Master does not forget!"

Another prisoner interjected right away, "Oh shut the fuck up, Ron! You're full of shit and you know it!" A quick shove was tossed as Ron was forced to his knees with the unknown named assailant's boots on his back.

"I do not lie!" Ron assured, a smile growing on his face. "The Master has come and the Master will have all ye see the truth for what it is!"

Someone else within their cell groaned.

"Enough of the tropes, Ron, no one is listening to your old flavor of crazy."

Ron shook his head, laughing. "You will all see-you will see when He comes. He is not with mercy, He will make you bleed and will declare you His before He's ready to use you for the fight! Blessed be our Master!"

A skirmish arose within Ron's cell after his recent words but Loki was already on his feet, shaking from head to toe.

If what the fool was saying was true, it meant that Thanos had come for **him**.

For Loki.

Or was that too pretentious to think it was only about himself?

If this was true, if this were reality, then Loki was fucked-incredibly and irrevocably fucked.

"I have to get off this planet," Loki whispered. But how?

He was alone in his more lavish cell and he knew not how he could leave together in one piece before Thanos came for him, found him and tore him apart limb from limb.

He swallowed hard, uncontrolled panic toiling through his body as he sunk to the floor himself, uncertain as to how to approach any form of problem solving to this particular scenario.

The noise around the prison's cells faded into a chatter and static of unclear conversation as more shouts and cries plunged into the air. Loki felt like he were about to pass out, having this moment to think about everything he had done in his life and every place where he had fallen and failed. He had failed his (not) father, killed his actual father, failed in the mission of Midgard to claim the planet as his and ultimately failed Thanos and the Other when it came to bringing them everything that they wanted. But maybe most importantly, Loki realized he had, too, failed himself.

And now, with only a year undergone in his punishment for the lives he had taken, he was meant to be found and castrated by the large purple man himself?

Sometimes, and Loki shook himself for forgetting this, but there were fates out there worse than death.

Loki buried his face in his hands, the cool touch of his fingers coming across his sweaty forehead in a way that was both relaxing and terrifying. It reminded him of when the Other would break his arms and legs together at once with their creepy six-fingered hands and malicious voices like rasps of a smoker. A chill ran through Loki as he lay there for what felt like hours for his inevitable fate. It only barely registered in his mind that after two minutes, four and seven that he was still alive and he was still in one piece.

Flashbacks crawled through his vision, distorting the world and reality around him, until he felt a warm hand on his shoulder and he cried out in fear and agony at the sudden touch.

"Brother," Thor, foolish and incredible and disgusting Thor said to him in his right ear and Loki opened his eyes again, not realizing he had ever closed them.

"Thor," he whispered quietly, barely even a whisper.

His voice was gone, his soul tattered and his body was all that remained. Abuse after flashes of abuse came back to him in a pristine and clear way that felt wrong and right in all the ways that he felt he had deserved it. It felt good to feel like shit because it felt familiar. And familiarity was something he found himself clinging to in that moment, when Thor's red cape nestled into him in a wave of comfort and warmth and he clung, he clung to it because it was something external to him that rooted him back into the present moment.

"Loki, we must go. A war has befallen Asgard."

Fuck it, Loki wanted to go back into his traumatic memories. Maybe the present moment wasn't as great as he remembered it to be.

"I-I can't."

Thor, from what little Loki could tell, seemed to be looking around them for something.

"I can't, Thor." Loki repeated again, a little sterner, a little more afraid. "It-It's him and I can't have failed him. But I have. And he will kill me."

He swallowed hard, green eyes staring out blankly to the air before them.

"Loki, you are all right. I know not what is happening but I promise you that Father will not come to harm you."

"That's not-" Loki made to correct him but he conceded to going with this lie instead, for now.

"Brother, it's time. I will be there for you each step of the way. But we must not stay here, it's not safe. Come," he lifted Loki to his feet and ushered him outside of his cell.

"Where are you taking me?" Loki asked meekly; he was suddenly ashamed that he hadn't paid enough attention to Thor to know if it was truly him or an imposter.

"To the throne room," Thor answered immediately. "Father will know what to do."

Loki laughed, mirthlessly, "You think too highly of the Allfather."

Thor shot him a look of question and confusion. "Don't talk like that."

"Oh? And should I have grace and patience for the one who placed me in these dungeons?"

Thor shook his head, "You know it was your actions that placed you here."

"And apparently mother's actions that kept me alive. Do remind me to send her a thank you card." Loki retorted, rolling his eyes.

But the conversation felt good. It felt calming and right and fair and like he was back in the present, back when things were less confusing and less hurtful. It was something, at least, and he felt warmth spread in his chest, wanting in part to thank Thor for this moment and also battling with the will and pride within him to remain stoic and uncaring.

Instead, he just smiled through the pain, hoping things would be okay.

Oh, how very, very wrong he was.

{*!*!*}

"Father!" Thor commanded the throne room as he scurried both himself and Loki inside quickly.

Mother was nowhere to be seen but Loki hoped that she was all right.

Odin turned to Thor immediately, almost completely ignoring Loki, and pointed to the now closed doorway.

"Thor, continue to fend off the army with the other guards. I must speak to Loki alone."

Thor made to protest and Loki felt something in his stomach drop with dread.

What game was Odin trying to play?

Distrust colored Loki's vision as he stepped away from Thor and smiled calmly up at the Allfather.

"Yes, Thor, leave us to chat, will you?"

He tossed a quick glance towards his not brother to strengthen the effect that he felt nonchalant and relaxed.

Internally, his insides were on fire and the panic in his chest was causing his heart to flutter rapidly.

Thor, obviously hurt and slightly fearful (for who, Loki knew not) but turned away, not before telling his brother, "Father does want what's best for you."

In retrospect, those words would come to both haunt Loki, remain painful and confusing.

Once Thor had left and they could hear the nearby scuffle happening outside the large, thick doors, Odin peered out at Loki from his one eye.

"He has come for you."

It was more of an observation than a question.

Loki looked down, shrugging one shoulder in a way to hide the shakes, "Yes."

"You have endangered the thousands of lives on this planet just by being here."

Loki blinked.

"And you're surprised by that?" He retorted easily, a questioning tone shimmying into his voice.

"No." Odin said calmly. "Wherever you go there is death and destruction. Why is that, Loki?"

Loki laughed, "Is this your version of a therapy session?"

Odin eyed the door mindfully for a moment.

"And what in me should let you walk free?"

 _Because I'm supposed to be your son_ , Loki thought but didn't say anything. The silence that followed was almost deafening if it weren't for the screams of pain and the bloodshed happening just feet away.

"You don't have to," Loki whispered. He gazed up at the Allfather again, resolve strengthened. "If you do not care for me, then give me over to Thanos. You won't have to deal with my bullshit any longer than that."

Odin looked back at Loki with an unrecognizable emotion in his eye.

"If only life were as simple as you make it out to be."

Loki tilted his head in confusion.

"I don't seem to understand. If the problem is Thanos, which it appears to be, then let me go with him and he will save your people…. Well, what's left of them."

The Allfather shook his head.

"You are still young so your naivety blocks your vision. In fact, much blocks your vision. You do not see the world as it is but rather as you'd like it to be. How do we fix this issue?"

A silence surrounded the two again.

"Beauty is not only in what is seen but in what is felt. Do you know this to be true, Loki?"

Loki blinked and rolled his eyes, "Sure."

Odin shook his head again, more concealed this time.

"You do not, for if you had, you wouldn't be standing here today. The answer is not in what life appears to be but in what life is. I will not cast you over to Thanos today. But I will ask you to find beauty in what can be unseen."

Loki shifted uncomfortably, tears springing to his eyes of their own volition.

"I don't like where this is going, Odin."

Odin smiled faintly, "No, you won't, but that is because you see so clearly that you don't see at all. Sight is a powerful sense that you have taken advantage of. The world isn't neat and cozy; it is dark and treacherous. But there can still be beauty found in it. You, thus far, have lost that beauty. Maybe without sight, you can find it again."

Loki backed up instinctively, definitely not liking where this was going.

"Father-?" his voice was small, his jaw clenching in worry and his throat tightening in pain.

A pounding came at the door.

Screams rattled through the walls.

Blood unfallen and already slain sprayed in the sunlight, the gold of the palace sparkling in both beauty and pain.

Disgrace and rage cycled through the air, the creatures just beyond the walls crying out and slashing their teeth and claws into the guards.

It happened quickly-all at once. There was an overstimulation of the environment around him, the question of whether Thor knew about this plot all along, and the pain that shot through his skull when he just glimpsed Odin standing by his throne, Gungnir pointed directly at Loki with a bright yellow-white light that collided into the trickster's face.

He thought he heard a new scream in the mix, his hands tried to come up to his head but he couldn't quite make it there, and he fell back into nothing-no floor, no wall, no ceiling. He fell backwards and further and further before he realized what was happening.

He was going through another vortex. He was being misplaced. He was being tossed into another realm.

He was…He was gone.

* * *

 **A/N** : Welcome back!

I finally defeated the writer's block by writing up the majority of this chapter. Thanos took on a deeper presence than I intended for him to in this story but I guess we'll just roll with it. There are now two primary plots: Thanos and yes, blindness. This is a fic idea I had way back in summer 2014 so it is soooo awesome and amazing that I am FINALLY writing about it now! I titled it at the end of Dec 2018 and I think it really fits well. I'm guessing this will be about 60 chapters long, and I hope that you enjoy it as much as I do and will continue to do so!

Thank you for reading and leave me a comment if you have the time! I'd love to hear from you guys. Thanks again!

Title of fic: 12/30/2018, Titled Chapter (all chapters will be individually titled): 12/31/18

Handwritten: 12/31/2018

Typed/Written: 1/3/2019

Edited: 1/4/2019

PS this chapter was brought to you by the background music of Wrabel's 11 Blocks!


	2. Chapter 2: The Landing

Come to Pass

Chapter 2: The Landing

Traveling through space and time in a vortex of multiple colors, dancing in the breeze, hurtling his body from one realm to the next was not exactly the journey Loki had imagined for himself. Granted, when he had awoken that morning in the dungeons, he hadn't quite expected to land himself in this pile of shit, either.

He faintly recalled that it was Thanos who was making a mockery of the guards upon Asgard as he slaughtered them in droves just to get to the trickster himself for revenge for not bringing and wielding the Tesseract to him over a year ago. Loki would be touched Thanos thought of him if he wasn't so completely and utterly terrified of what that meant for his soul.

All he could think of now was that his eyes were burning, he was pretty sure he was the one making those mewling screams, his life was flashing before his eyes and his skull erupted into painful jabs that felt like screws were being placed to break apart his bones. As if these screws sought entry into his brain to taint him, make him better, make him worse.

He briefly recalled that it was the Allfather conveying a load of nonsense about sight and vision and seeing before he was plunged into this level of hell and darkness (and color, paradoxically as it were). He felt his heart race in his chest, his cool hands doing nothing to ease the pain by his eyes and he just wished for it all to be over soon.

Cruelly, Loki thought back to what Thor had spoken of although with the pain and the aching and the thrashing of his body he could hardly remember the exact phrasing. Something about father wanting the best for him; but if this were the Allfather's best he really needed to read a different parenting book.

In fact, maybe there were worse fates out there for him in the universe than being taken by Thanos after all. He wasn't sure why Odin had spared him the pain from the large purple man, but if it were just to give him more pain, he really didn't like that option either.

Soon, Loki could no longer stand the stabbing mess that was lurking behind his eyelids so he gave into the breathtaking urge to just shut off and propel himself into unconsciousness. In the end, it was probably his best mode of action.

{*!*!*}

"There's no way." His voice carried in the windless air, his face becoming clearer behind the pint of scotch and the spread of awe lighting up his face.

"There's no way you don't have a clue what _The Lion King_ is," Tony admonished to Captain America, who sat across from him on the couch, a glass of iced water by his side.

"You do realize I was frozen in ice for seventy years, right?" Steve responded, blue eyes lighting up the world around him so much so that Tony couldn't help but snicker.

"Yeah, but, haven't you put that classic film on your list of things to catch up on? Where **is** your list by the way? And if you have it, which I'm sure you do, can I see it? You need some major improvements to it, Capsicle," Tony took another swig from his glass, emptying it and placing it happily back onto his coaster that Pepper made him take with him after so many rings of water left their trail on his desks, tables and countertops.

"It's a private list, Tony," Cap replied, cautious and naïve as he were.

"You've clearly not known me for long enough," Tony laughed, shaking his head and gearing up to get another glass of the alcohol when he knew he saw a look of disapproval on Cap's face.

"You gotta lighten up, Rogers!" He tinkered around with the containers of alcohol within his reach and caught Steve just shaking his head lightly from the corner of his eye.

"We've gotta be prepared for the next mission," Steve said quietly, realizing how old school he sounded and knowing that Tony was about to make fun of him for it. Playfully, yes, but make fun of all the same.

"Nothing a good glass of rum won't fix!" Tony sloshed over a glass for Steve, who refused him for the thirteenth time, only for Tony to dip back the glass down his own throat and offer him a smug grin. "Besides, we haven't had a new mission in over two weeks. Living a little won't kill ya!"

"But everything else might," Steve replied, watching the inventor slowly place himself into a stupor.

He was about to remark something equally as dreadful as the last three statements, when Steve noticed a streak of sudden, bright light pass by the windows of Avengers Tower.

"What was-?" He began, but he never managed to finish that thought.

Instead, a crash, boom and pop shook the structure of the building they were residing in as the light-blue, white, red, green and gold-slammed into the roof with such force that it made its two occupants temporarily blind for a moment.

When the light faded and the spots disappeared from their lines of vision, they both immediately leapt from the cozy gray cushions and sprinted towards the main staircase that would bring them to the roof, where they knew the incident was localized.

"Jarvis, launch a suit just in case!" Tony huffed as the super soldier and the inventor quickly climbed the stairs.

Cap had managed to grab his shield just in case, but they were still in civilian clothes and Tony wasn't nearly aware enough to properly go up and down a flight of stairs let alone make the best decisions right now. _No driving, no flying under the influence,_ that's what Pepper had said. He hoped he wouldn't need to break that rule this evening.

When they got to the roof, Steve naturally a mile ahead of Tony, they could see angry smoke hissing off the ground where a crumpled intruder now lay.

"You think he's safe?" Steve whispered to Tony's right ear but the inventor huffed.

"Not until I deem him safe," he grumbled back, hands curling into fists by his sides as he really, really wished he'd just have been in the suit by now.

Steve approached cautiously, one foot sliding over the over as he drew closer and closer to the…being.

Whoever it was, they hadn't come for help during normal business hours and Tony was too drunk off his ass to give much of a shit.

He realized, probably a moment too late, that he was supposed to be following alongside Steve so he started to fumble with his feet and got about three feet away from him when the dread started to sober him up.

"Is that-? That's not-right?" Tony Stark muttered with his words flopping lazily out of his mouth like his tongue was three sizes too large for his mouth.

Steve shook his head, unsure what to make of who this was beginning to appear to be.

"It's too dark," he murmured, unable to get a clean line of vision to make that judgment call.

"You need to eat more carrots," Stark replied easily, because he felt alone in the feeling that he was pretty sure that was the guy who attacked New York City a year ago with his evil alien army. And now the dude was back, crumpled in a heap on the Avengers Tower and they were, what, just supposed to let him waltz back in for home invasion number two?

No, Tony didn't like the sound of that. And he'd be damned if he let another alien creature toss him through another paned glass window this time around.

"I say we gang up on him," was Tony's helpful next remark, brown eyes a little glazed over and arms at the ready to attack the trickster like a bear attacks a married couple in the woods. "We just have to act bigger and better than him-I mean, we already kinda are-and then he'll leave, yeah, that sounds right."

"Tony," Steve interrupted the inventor's ramblings, talking quieter than his ally had been. "He's not a bear and we're not his honey. Let's just keep our heads leveled here, okay?" Steve shifted his grip on his shield as they were coming up to about five feet away from the demigod.

At this point, Tony couldn't comprehend why the trickster had been so still for the five minutes and forty-three seconds since he had landed back on Earth on the tower of all places. Tony was starting to think-with the gears in his head turning slower than normal-that maybe the trickster wasn't in perfect health this time around.

Stark made it a point then to tap the super soldier on the bicep.

"If that is who we think it is I don't think he's even conscious."

Steve blinked in disbelief, easily supplying, "He could be faking it."

"No one fakes being knocked out that easily, trust me, I've used that act too many times to count to get out of going to school and it never worked on my Mom then either."

Tony looked around for a moment before he, noisily, bumbled over to a nearby potted plant, breaking off a stem and trotting back over to the fallen god. Before Steve could protest or slap his hand away, Tony reached out with the bending stem and poked the trickster in the shoulder.

Expecting a snarling snap to attention and moving back reflexively in case this happened, it was super anticlimactic when nothing happened.

"Still think he's faking it?" Tony asked Steve, coming back around to the super soldier's side and sliding to the floor to get away from the dark night's chilly wind.

Steve raised a brow then shrugged, sitting down beside Tony.

"What do we do?" Steve asked in wonder, uncertain on how to proceed.

"I say we wait til he wakes up and while we do that, I get to sleep," Tony replied in a yawn, curling up onto his side upon the cold rooftop, almost forgetting where he was and who he was with. Before he could protest further though and wake up his brain into high alert mode he was already snoring and Steve was staring, transfixed, on the back of the trickster who had yet to make a move. Steve dreaded that it would be a few hours before any such movement met their eyes.

{*!*!*}

He noticed the presence of a whirring sound first. There was a very real hustle and bustle to the world around him and he could just make out the feeling of cold rocks upon the side of his pale cheek. He heard the rustling of a city what felt like hundreds of miles beneath him, and hell, maybe it was. He swallowed hesitantly, his mouth having gone dry.

 _Where was he?_ He thought to himself, his fingers slowly unfurling from their cocoon against his green and gold clad armor.

Flashes of screams, blood and running floated through his skull. His skull…it ached painfully, throbbing in time with his heartbeat. He had been on Asgard but he knew with growing panic that he was no longer there.

He understood now what some of those sounds were-cars, cars of the mortals that used large metal and plastic boxes to travel in.

All at once pigments of memory came flooding into him-Thanos had arrived on Asgard searching for the trickster to murder or at least torture again; Odin and his speech about sight; Thor and all his heroic nature of saying father only wanted to help him; being thrust into the vortex after Gungnir was pointed directly at Loki's face.

The moment was chaotic. Unbelievable. A dream, it had to be a dream. Because there was too much happening, too much stimuli and too much automation of nonsense that left Loki feeling breathless and panicked and afraid and he still hadn't even opened his eyes.

So, he did, he decided that was one thing in his life that he could control at the given moment so, he opened his eyes.

And he blinked.

And blinked.

And blinked.

But no visual stimuli came through.

He moved his eyes left and right, up and down and he could feel them moving, he could feel the blinks of his eyelashes as the hairs came together, rustling each other like twins, and he could almost hear that inaudible noise his eyes made when they bounced around in his skull. But still, still, he couldn't see anything!

He couldn't…couldn't see.

It was then that Loki faced a new form of pain, emotion and fear than he had ever experienced before in his life. Tortured by the Other? Pain. Falling from the Bifrost? Emotion. Hearing that Thanos had arrived on his home planet to take him back to the wretched square of space he occupied? Fear.

But this, this was something else altogether.

It was in that moment of clarity that his breathing scattered and breaths came in and out too fast, too unfulfilled, too choppy and he realized he was panicking. Desperately, unfortunately and terribly panicking.

Where was he exactly on this god forsaken planet?

He knew not for sure, he couldn't fucking see a thing and he had no understanding of his surroundings, no understanding of what this all meant, what this new hell on Earth was going to do to him.

Where could he go? Who would he run to? It's not like Thor was there to protect him, he couldn't, no one could. At the end of the day, Loki was alone and he would be the only one to face his crimes and punishments by himself. Only Loki could face death solo.

Speaking of, he heard a noise then. Somewhere within all the panic and hyperventilation, he heard a scraping noise and immediately all of his defenses kicked into overdrive and he reached into his sleeve, limbs knocking into each other, as he pulled out a dagger to protect himself from whatever or whomever lay behind him. Even if he couldn't see he didn't need to to stab someone, right?

He heard the male inflection of someone trying to shush another person.

His stomach dropped in shame and guilt-if there were two individuals he didn't know how he was going to out fight them.

He heard, somewhere between his thoughts of panic and high strung emotions, that their footsteps were closer than he had thought just a second before.

Loki hated himself for it but he couldn't help but to whimper.

 _I'm stronger than this,_ he thought to himself but he wasn't so sure anymore. Maybe he wasn't. Maybe this was the end of the line for the trickster.

A male voice spoke to him then, cutting off the much needed oxygen supply to his brain so that he could understand what language it was they were even speaking.

"What?" he hissed under his breath, hoping to both scare off his intruder while also praying that they would repeat themselves so he could have some semblance of normalcy back into his life.

"Are you here to murder us?" The voice was gruff and a little slurred, and Loki couldn't quite place the tone for a moment before realizing it may have been the inventor.

"Stark," came a second reply and Loki felt his blood pressure increase threefold.

The Avengers.

Oh how thoughtful of the Allfather to send him sense less back into the arms of the mortals he attempted to conquer in exchange for the Tesseract by the Other and Thanos a year ago.

This could only end well for the trickster, naturally.

From what he could decipher with his hearing, which wasn't much still between the sludge of his thoughts and the panic that still laced through his crumpled body like fire, they were located behind him. Which meant he had his back to them and they couldn't see him…not, not all of him at least. Which would raise the favor into Loki's hands because then at least they wouldn't also see how he couldn't even begin to see them either.

"Why are you here?" The righteousness in this second voice could only mean it was the super soldier. His tone was even, kind almost and he was a man searching for answers, answers Loki was afraid to give him.

"Are you alone?" the soldier continued, looking around him and the inventor uneasily.

"…yes." Loki murmured so softly he wasn't sure he had said anything at all.

"Is Thor with you?" Stark asked, almost pleased with himself.

"No." Loki deadpanned.

"Then why are you here? We have no quarrel any longer with your people." Steve said evenly again, taking another step forward, shield held at the ready in case Loki tried anything smart.

"We don't have anything you want-unless you want a toaster, beige with blue stripes, we have two really, we don't actually need it-but if you go quietly we won't even tell Fury about this incident." Stark negotiated, knowing he was lying through his teeth (except about the toaster which was genuine).

"There's nowhere for me to go," Loki whispered in exhaustion.

"Why's that?" Steve asked, lowering his voice to match Loki's weary dismissal.

"I mean, no planet really wants him so…." Tony mumbled in between but Loki answered, shakily, as best as he could.

"A war has befallen Asgard. And I fear that it may follow me here."

The group fell into shocked silence for a moment, maybe two.

"And why would it do that?" Steve asked, slowly, sounding out each syllable as if he were tasting a new meal.

"Because I was meant to be ruled." Loki scrubbed at his face, fingers accidentally poking him in the eyes because for god sake's he couldn't fucking see!

"I can't go back. I don't have any way to. I am stuck here, with you people. I don't know where Thor is, he's probably back on our planet fighting them off, but I don't know if or when he will come. When he will come for me…" Loki sighed softly. "I'd like to go inside now."

Tony laughed instantly.

"You've got to be kidding me! A demigod who once laid waste to the city wants an invitation into the home of his enemies? When did this become a soap opera's terrible plotline?" Brown eyes looked over to blue but Steve was still staring straight ahead, shoulders raised with tension as he was mulling over the situation.

He turned to Tony for a moment, lowering his shield.

"If what he's saying is true, we're gonna need more information from him. If it's all the same to you, I'd rather do that interrogation on the inside of this tower rather than in the blistering cold. What do you say?" Steve laid down the trajectory of what they were looking at with such a level of diplomacy and understanding that Tony for a minute saw in him what his father once did.

"One day, that's all he gets." Tony grumbled lowly, before turning back to the trickster.

"You've got one day, Reindeer Games. So, hurry up, let's get inside!"

The trickster, oddly enough, didn't move a muscle.

Tony called for him again but either the demigod had fallen asleep or something else was terribly wrong, a scenario neither Avenger had taken into account.

"Are you injured?" Steve asked kindly, remembering that Loki had just told them that there was a war on his home planet.

"I… don't know." Loki answered hesitantly. "I haven't tried to get up yet." He said in measured breaths. It was now or never to try.

Loki raised his head from the bottom of the floor, immediately feeling disoriented as he propped himself up onto his elbow, his bones digging uncomfortably into the wrinkles of his armor, before he then knocked his knees into the ground and stood up from there.

He was still facing away from the Avengers, or so he thought, when he tried to take a step forwards.

It was an entirely frightening experience. He could not see anything before him, no blurred shapes, nothing but differing shades of darkness. The Avengers were no longer speaking which made Loki all the more disoriented, unable to see before him and unable to identify where he was and where he was going.

He heard more than felt the weak comment that he was getting too close, too close to where he wasn't sure, before he reached out his foot to hold onto the gray tar and rocky surface when instead his foot met nothing but air.

He added more of his weight to his free floating foot before he managed to understand why that was a very, very bad sign.

In his haste to appear normal and independent, Loki had just walked his way off the roof. He thought of how the mortals had that saying 'go take a walk off a short pier' and he wondered if they meant scenarios like these and whether he'd be able to feel all his bones break as he inevitably collided into the ground below. Maybe it would be swift, peaceful even. Maybe it wouldn't hurt quite as bad as he feared.

Because this was his life now: fear and lack of sight. Fear based on lack of sight?

The fall this time wasn't as depressing or painful, not right away at least. It was just darkness and darkness and then brightness of light. He must have gotten close to the ground before he felt metal arms curling around him and he was zooming up again into the air. But by then, he was tired, so very, very tired so he went to sleep, because this had been one hectic of an evening that he never wished to repeat again. Everything else in life could wait until he caught some z's he thought. Everything else would still be there when he got back anyways.

* * *

 **A/N:** Why, hello there! I wrote this chapter up the other day and just finished polishing through it once over. I think I'm going to upload it today and then print out a hard copy in case I get more writing vibes later in the week. :]

This is technically the second scene where Loki has trouble with a rooftop, but that's a surprise for another day. I'm feeling a little off today but I hope that the details match up and everything is overall okay in this renewed chapter. I just really want to share it right away. :] Fun fact: I find it interesting that some of the scenes I originally wrote down for this story are being altered to fit into the present day writings, I just go where the Muse tells me, after all.

Any who, hope you enjoy it and if you have time, leave me a review! They really help. Here's hoping to more writing in the next week! :D

Written: 3.11.2019;

Edited: 3.12.19


	3. Chapter 3: Revealing Eyes

Come to Pass

Chapter 3: Revealing Eyes

The moment the trickster had apathetically walked his way off the roof made Steve gasp in shock and Tony to be plunged into being suddenly sober. He'd gotten on the suit in the blink of an eye, falling after the demigod until the suit wrapped around him so much like when he'd been tossed off back during the battle. He had shuddered thinking about it, and couldn't quite get the flashbacks to clear from his vision.

But he managed, he managed to wrap his metal arms around the demigod and swiftly swing them back up to the top of the tower.

Tony would be lying if he didn't admit that he was shaking like a leaf from head to toe.

They'd acted in a blur: Steve, somewhere, at some point, unlocking the doors and dragging in the god and the inventor, and then before he could really rationalize everything that had just happened, Tony was depositing the demigod onto a red comforter from one of the spare bedrooms in the tower.

It was as his suit was disentangling itself from him that a furrowed brow landed on his forehead; he was swiping his hand through his hair and exasperatedly sighing, "What the hell just happened?"

Brown eyes narrowed in an overwhelming sense of concern that he tried to fight back because of **who** it was they were dealing with, but he couldn't switch off the humanitarian side of him that was fighting to win. He didn't know why he was suddenly so invested in this case but he found that he was and he wanted answers-now.

He stared at the demigod, huffing slightly as the panic encircled him more and more. "You saw that too, right? He-he just **walked** off the roof. What in the fuck is happening tonight?" Tony slid still shaky fingers down the sides of his face and groaned a mewling sound of noise that wasn't exactly any language's detectable words.

He just managed to glance at Steve before interpreting the expression of bafflement, unease and confusion on his teammates face. Tony saw Steve's blue eyes searching the trickster up and down but they couldn't uncover what was wrong, what felt so….different this time.

"Earth to Steve?" Tony was muttering, flashing an open palm into Steve's line of vision.

The super soldier jerked away suddenly, eyes coming to land on the inventor almost as if he had forgotten that Tony was still there.

He smiled thinly before replying softly, "Something's wrong." It's all he could manage to say, the words appearing elusive even to his own mind and his subjective reality. He wanted to say more but the ideas of this died upon his lips before he could even properly form them.

"No shit, Sherlock," Tony snapped before he sighed heavily, trying to calm the jitteriness of his movements and remind himself that he was okay, that it was a year later, it wasn't happening all over again, he was going to be okay. It didn't completely help but it was Pepper's words of advice to him and he found himself slightly soothing the more he repeated it in his mind. _Thank god for Pepper,_ he thought, imagining her and her warm embraces, juxtaposing those experiences with the one he'd just had with the alien who had started all of his anxiety in the first place.

Tony rubbed his hands together in front of himself, the friction and the warmth that emanated from such movements continuing to ground him and have him return to the present moment. He definitely wished he could curl into Pepper's body right about now, hear her words of comfort and feel relaxed by her presence.

But Pep wasn't here right now-Steve was and Loki was, out of all circumstances that didn't make sense, but it was where they were at so Tony had to make the most of it.

"This is weird, even for us." Tony extended as a peace offering to the super soldier. He couldn't quite take back the venom in his words earlier but he could offer Steve the realization that these were very, very strange circumstances.

Steve, still processing and buffering as it were, nodded mutely.

Tony wondered what the super soldier was thinking, eying him carefully with pursed lips but Steve wasn't a software he could tap into and figure out. He couldn't necessarily analyze Steve in the same way as he processed a machine or ran a test. Tony's gaze lowered slightly, that's the problem he had with human to human interaction: there was no clear indication of what another person was thinking and it bothered the shit out of the inventor because he just wanted to **know**. Why was that so hard to ask for?

But Steve was in his own world, processing through a dozen scenarios and which ones were the likeliest to be coming to fruition. If they were really dealing with Loki again, and this wasn't just some fever dream he had managed to concoct in his mind or some roofie that was slipped into his water from Tony, then Steve was going to have to be dealing with a much larger issue than the seemingly small one they were facing right now.

There would need to be debriefings, chains, jail, interrogations, trying to call upon Thor, somehow, dealing with Director Fury and what he would want to do (and Steve had a bad feeling about that, too) and then getting the rest of the Avengers back together (they'd lapsed into radio silence and being pulled apart to different countries as of late) and dealing with potential alien armies that might outnumber them-because it was true that he'd heard Loki right, right? That there was a war occurring on Asgard? Which meant, as even Loki had admitted- _so strangely,_ Steve thought-that it may follow him here. What would that mean for the planet? The city? The heroes?

Steve wasn't sure and it was all too much to digest under a late night, a drunken friend and a shade of uncertainty so deeply penetrating that it made Steve shake in anger and confusion.

Had the life he had imagined for himself been crushed once more into powder and dust? What would this mean for himself, for his team, for his loved ones going forwards?

Steve felt a pang of guilt and grief when he thought back to his old friend, Bucky. Bucky would know what to say right now, what to do, what to think.

But Bucky wasn't here. And that made it all the worse.

As Steve tried to repair the gaping hole in his chest and the wounds that stung from salt, he heard almost as if the inventor was far away, Tony say, "No one finds out about this for a day. Not until we figure out what the hell we're supposed to be reporting to begin with. Just…just one day." Steve could tell the anxiety was dripping from the billionaire's lips and even Steve was confronted by this wavering doubt that a day would be if they were lucky-something told him that this wouldn't be figured out so soon after all. This dawning realization made him uncertain as to which part was worse.

Steve didn't like harboring secrets. He was very much against lying, deceit and not speaking and living in his truth. But lately he'd been starting to harbor a lot of secrets and this one felt too large, too important to properly be leaving in the shadows. But he didn't really have an intuition of what could be done otherwise.

Maybe, maybe the trickster was just passing through? Maybe he was even more injured than they could visibly visualize and that was coloring his interpretations of the world and what had happened on his home planet?

All Steve knew for sure was that something was very, very wrong and he had a sinking feeling about it all.

Steve noticed himself nodding to Tony, his vertebrae almost squeaking in turn to the motion, as he tried to add reassuringly, "It's our responsibility to determine the amount of threat present. Maybe he won't even be here long. A day gives us time and we need more time." The last of his words were barely said, more like in a hushed whisper and Tony found himself once again swept up into anxiety as he'd never seen or heard Steve like this before, and they'd been living together in the tower for a year now.

Tony had seen Steve through the good times, the bad times, the uncertain times and the battle times. None of these times were being mirrored in Steve's body or voice now and it made his heart beat faster with all the nervous energy bouncing around in his gut. If they were truly dealing with an uncommon experience, what would guide them through it necessarily?

Tony felt his alarm bells go off as he choked out, "Just a day." He started to sink himself slowly down into the nearest white cushioned chair. "And for now we wait, wait until he wakes up." Tony's eyes didn't dare leave the Asgardian's form again, the waves of sleepiness he had gotten from being buzzed having temporarily faded away.

Steve agreed, setting himself down upon the floor, knees bent, eyes never shifting again either.

"One day," Steve observed.

They were Avengers, after all. They had work to do. And wasn't this their job all along: to assess threats and dangers to mankind? Weren't they just being responsible superhero citizens of their realm? Steve would have liked to think so. He couldn't extend as much responsibility towards Tony but even then, it was because, he reasoned, that Tony hadn't been through as much war experience as Steve had. At least, that's how he made sense of it to himself. The fact that Tony would want to go on alcohol binges and party all night long, have reckless sex while stringing along Pepper, so it seemed to Steve, was all great indications that Tony wasn't the most responsible person on the team. But Steve knew that maybe these behaviors masked deeper issues beneath the surface. Steve tried not to judge so much and definitely didn't go about voicing these concerns. Steve just figured eventually Tony would grow up and get it all out of his system. Steve also figured he'd be waiting a long time for that to happen, so he took some resignation about the task into play.

So what did it matter if the potential second wave threat was from a returning supervillain?

It made it so that there was all the more reason to remain eyes locked on the demigod until he could awaken and provide them with the answers to soothe their souls.

And if he happened to be truthful in his previous words on the rooftop-if a war was coming back to Earth-then they had to be ready. They had to start preparing.

Or else, this time, they might not make it through.

{*!*!*}

Tony and Steve had settled into severely uncomfortable positions for their night long waiting game. Tony had started with both feet flat on the floor, back rigid against the spine of the chair, then to sitting cross legged, then to vegging out in a relaxed position, then to lying across the arms of the chair (which was quite uncomfortable) to now lying upside down in the soft cushion. His head was placed carefully upon the floor and his eyes continued to threaten to close until he would physically shake himself awake in an attempt to remain wide-eyed. It would help for a few seconds before he'd shut his lids together again and snored lightly. In which case, Steve elbowed him in the ribs and then Tony would sputter and try to fight off his wanting to punch Steve in the side for keeping him awake, until he remembered yet again why they both needed to remain on their toes.

But even in his sleepy mind, Tony muttered that one of them could stay awake to let the other sleep and just take turns like that. He just was so tired that he could hardly gather up the energy to make the suggestion. So, instead, he wandered in and out of proper consciousness.

Steve, legs falling asleep on more than one occasion, causing him to limp around the room and thanking Tony for not having creaky floorboards, paced nervously to let out some energy and also to keep himself alert and on the ready. Steve would accidentally trip over something on the bare floor, what he had no clue, before he would settle back onto the floor in his bare position.

They spent hours doing this, Tony mostly eyeing his cell phone and exploring social media, talking to Jarvis here and there to not send out information on who their new guest was in the tower, and Steve watched and watched and then eventually tore out some paper from the side bookshelf and jotted down some ideas he had roaming around in his mind, hopeful that it would get his thoughts more in order and the grogginess would ebb away. It sort of worked and sort of flopped.

By six AM, Steve was running on fumes and the early morning rays of sunshine were beginning to crawl across the floor from the nearest window. It wasn't the best view of the tower, not that that mattered for their guest, Steve internally reasoned, but a three foot by three foot window. It was a glimpse towards the outside world, tantalizing and brief, letting the viewer crave more but not providing it itself.

Steve did as best as he could to suppress the yawn that threatened to balloon out of his maw, and he was only half successful in retaining it. He nudged Tony in the ribs again, his eyes lingering on Loki's form as he began to realize through the fog of sleeplessness that Loki's body was twitching and the moment of truth was spawning in front of them faster than Tony could reasonably awaken and for Steve to be back in his mind and body.

"Tony," he hissed beneath his breath and he heard the continued snore from his teammate before he rolled his eyes and dug his elbow in a little deeper, the glow from the billionaire's arc reactor being swallowed up by the sun's cresting over the Earth.

"He's waking up," Steve implored just as quietly and under different circumstances he would have laughed when Tony wondered aloud, "What? Who?" Tony waved a hand dismissively. "Just one more minute."

Steve regarded him regally, "It's Loki; I think he's waking up."

Tony's eyes immediately snapped open like he'd just slammed a treasure chest ajar to see the gold coins hidden just beyond it.

Tony clambered to an upright position, all the blood having rushed to his head returning to pool at his feet as he stretched mildly in the chair, standing up too quickly and finding himself awkward and uncomfortable soon after.

"What do we do?" he asked Steve, seeing from the corner of his eye that Steve was as slow as a sloth to get up from the floor.

 _He must have a harder time getting up than I thought,_ Tony mused, settling on the notion that one, he'd check in with Steve about his modesty and aversion to seek help when he needed it; two, to place an extra order of chairs for the tower; and three, that he'd forgotten how old Steve was-and the thought of this consideration made him smirk-despite being frozen in time. He was still working with an aging body like the rest of them and he had to be more careful in the future.

Tony mildly scoffed at the notion: that a super soldier was still human and joints didn't care if you were a hero or not, they would still ache and become encapsulated with pain no matter how much they at one point didn't, was flabbergasting and a little more than mind-boggling and inconceivable.

Tony mentally ran a check-in for his own system: noting the way tiredness clung to the deepening angle of his shoulders, the way his eyes were scrunched up on the ends despite the waves of adrenaline trying to shoot through his body to make him alert. He felt the way his neck protested for the angle he'd fallen asleep in and the way his back screamed at him to rest and the headache of all headaches blew his skull backwards.

 _Well, shit_ , he thought to himself, taking in a big, deep breath and shaking his body out. He didn't miss the arch of a brow pulled up from Steve but he also didn't care to give the super soldier a reason for his particular madness.

Tony edged closer to the bed, somewhat marred with confusion, apprehension and intrigue, even ignoring the way Steve held up a hand until the frozen mortal clenched his palm around the billionaire's bicep, halting him in place-making it so that he froze as well.

"Careful," Steve warned in a low octave, this time more perceptible to the human ear.

Tony spared him a quick glance and as a quip began to form on his lip, or a snarl that Steve wasn't his father erupted from the pain deep in his chest, they both heard a distinct moan come from the bedspread.

 _He's giving birth to an alien,_ was Tony's original thought, despite how absurd that sounded to the rest of his brain.

"Focus," he breathed, noticing how Steve bristled at his tone and mentally slapping himself because this was their newest mission and they had to be on the same side, right? Wasn't that how team cohesion worked, after all? Or had he not been paying as much attention as he'd thought in that training than when they'd been completing team building exercises?

"Hrrrugh," came another low response from the bed.

Tony figured the demigod would be slow to come back to his senses and he was hoping for as much, until Loki swung an arm, a leg and a torso through the air, suddenly breathing fast and shouting, "Show yourself, heathen!"

Tony was immediately in a battle position as Steve was holding his shield in one arm and Jarvis was at the ready as their omnipotent guard.

 _That's odd,_ Tony thought, observing that Loki wasn't exactly looking at them. Instead the trickster was facing the non-threatening bookshelf, a dagger in one hand and eyes slapped shut in a remarkable feat for someone who'd just awakened.

Steve was noticing the way his own stomach dropped to his shoes and that a sense of pervasive unease had begun to hang across his shoulders once again.

 _This isn't good,_ he thought in passing, motioning for Tony to be quiet for another moment longer.

Tony, of course, couldn't read Steve's mind and naturally didn't get the memo.

"Settle down, Reindeer Games," Tony casually mocked in a tone that got Steve to glare at him momentarily.

Loki's back stiffened and somehow relaxed at the same time.

"Ah, yes, Midgard, isn't it?" Loki said, thoughtfully. He shifted in a whirl towards where he imagined the Man of Iron to be.

He flinched when he thought he heard someone moving in the opposite direction.

 _Right, there were two of them,_ Loki considered, heart sinking to the core of the cursed planet.

He shifted sideways in a way he hoped to be between the two mortals but he wasn't sure how well he executed such a manner.

To Tony, the trickster was behaving unnaturally and to Steve, it only caused his faith in the one day rule to break and fracture even more.

Where was this going? And was there any way to possibly stop it?

Loki breathed through his teeth.

"To what do I owe this encounter?" he asked in a voice that was far too controlled, instantaneously betraying the way he tried to make it appear relaxed and aloof.

"You first, Reindeer Games," Tony remarked, tossing a coin he found in his pocket towards the demigod, without Steve's consent, of course.

The dime bounced off Loki's armor and the trickster moved back in response, casting his face towards the ground.

Almost...hiding.

"What's wrong?" Tony asked softly, unsure why he'd invested so much into this once upon a year ago enemy.

"There's something you're not telling us," Steve ventured just as carefully.

"I do not owe you anything, mortals," Loki hissed, hatred entering his mind.

Defensiveness, that's what it was; Tony quirked his head to the side. There was no need to get defensive if a person-or alien as it were-wasn't feeling particularly vulnerable and making up in show for what they lacked internally.

Tony bit his lip as he watched the way Loki's hips shifted back and forth, placing his toes into the floor with extra pressure before falling back to his heel then over again.

"We can't help you if we don't know what's wrong." Steve offered: tone soft and childlike, brimming with hope and optimism so much so that Tony couldn't help but cringe.

Loki tried not to let the sentimentality of those words enter his heart but he felt the tears leak out of his eyes and fall to his chest anyways.

"I...I cannot..." Loki turned away, he thought, and let out a small whimper.

Another dime came into the air between the heroes and villain, Steve shooting a look to Tony, as Loki expressed horripilation after it clattered upon the wood flooring. Despite the dime lying a foot away from the demigod, after the trajectory of its descent seemed to come in slow motion, the bitter truth slapped the two superheroes in their frightened faces. If there weren't alarm bells going off before, they definitely were now.

"We have to know exactly what we're dealing with here," Steve said, wishing that what he feared wasn't the truth.

Loki sighed, his eyes parting open. He raised them up, seeing a bright white-red coloration, _too bright_ he thought, before casting his eyes elsewhere, to where instead he only saw a blue-black background.

He pointed his eyes to where he thought the mortals lied and heard the gasp and the question that left him trembling:

"What happened to your eyes?"

Loki's gaze fell into sadness, his voice small as he whispered, "How bad is it?"

Steve shook slightly, mentioning in a slow state, "Your eyes are cloudy. Can you-?"

"The iris and everything," Tony clarified.

"-see?" Steve finished, already dreading the answer he knew was coming.

"My-my father has blinded me." Loki shuddered as the injustice and ill-timing of it all came festering to the surface. "My father has blinded me for how long I know not, there's a war on Asgard and the Mad Titan is out for blood, **my** blood, and he will not stop until every last one of his children have burned every planet under the sun to the ground. We, we are doomed." Loki added gravely.

Tony nodded quickly, almost upbeat in the hopes to contrast the way he felt his soul quaking, "Sounds about right for a Monday." He looked towards Steve. "Now what?"

Steve frowned.

"Just one day," Steve said, face ashen, falling back into shock.

Tony chuckled nervously and sighed, shrugging one shoulder as he commented, "Yeah, about that..."

* * *

 **A/N:** Hi again! I'm soooo sorry it's been legitimately a YEAR since I updated this fic. I started the document in June, then titled it in August 2019 and started it a little but didn't like how it was going after 3 sentences and then buried it from my mind until March 2020. But, I'm back with an update and I will NOT be abandoning this story or any of my other ones!

I updated ALU about a week ago and am hoping to do the same for S, CeC, D&D and AUS (amazingly!) in the coming quarantine days ahead.

I hope that you enjoy this chapter and this story! I might edit some of it or try to get back into re-watching the characters again through clips and the like. Feel like I haven't done that in a long time. Any who, let me know what you think! Looking forward to your responses and please stay safe out there, readers! I appreciate and thank you for every view, fave, follow, review and anything else I'm forgetting. :D Stay healthy! xxx

Written: 8.9.19; 3.23.20, 3.24, 3.25.2020

Edited: 3.24, 3.25.2020

Music: "Everything I Wanted" by Billie Eilish; "Hymns with the Devil in Confessional" by The Dear Hunter (full album); "Rescue" by Lauren Daigle.


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